Few Words About Tomb Raider I

Photo: https://laracroftonline.com/music/tomb-raider-one-soundtrack-1996.html

First obstacle with the original Tomb Raider wasn't any of the puzzles or platforming, instead it was getting it to run on Steam Deck and Linux in general. After one evening of irritation and fighting with different emulators I finally got it working without any bigger problems, except cutscenes didn't really work – there is sound, but screen is black. Thankfully you can watch them on Youtube, so that's exactly what I did.

After getting used to terrible (old-school) controls game surprised me by being fun. Of course it feels old and outdated, but that doesn't really matter because on its core Tomb Raider is a fantastic game. Atmosphere is unique and difficulty is just perfect for my stupid brain. I had so much fun trying to figure my way through the Indiana Jones styled obstacles while occasionally fighting some nightmare creatures (and dinosaurs). And thanks to very detailed walkthroughs at Stella's Tomb Raider Site I rarely got stuck on any puzzle for too long.

I especially enjoyed later levels with more macabre and grotesque designs – it truly felt that Lara Croft went from this pretty ordinary tomb raiding into something unsettling and unknown. PS1 era graphics and minimalistic sound design (though I think that at times music was bugged because it played only for a short time at random locations and stopped just like that) gave me at times horror vibes that modern indie titles that are trying to replicate original Playstation's looks can't reach – after all imitation isn't the same as the real thing in bigger picture. But that is a conversation to be had on an another blog post.

Overall I would say that original Tomb Raider is great piece of history, that I'd recommend anyone who is interested in 90's gaming or gaming culture in general to check out. And as the remastered version just released, I think even more players are able to see what Lara Croft's first adventure was like. I need to try that new version myself at some point too as I am very interested in modern control scheme it has. But until then I will be continuing my Tomb Raider adventures with the original titles.

I'm trying something new: I will be uploading these blog post on a video from on Youtube from now on – just trying things out. Tell me what you think!